Apparently the nipple is old non-news. So too is gay people getting married, I guess.

So it falls to Jesus Christ to rise from the grave yet again! This time to feed the voracious news beast! And, Christ, could I not care less!

This is NOT a news story! No matter how much the Right Wing Media try to make it so.

Here's the deal: There is no controversy. The "Liberal Media" has not tried to keep the movie from being seen. Hollywood is not shaking in it's boots about "what the success of this movie might mean!" The Gospel Truth is nobody gives a crap!

There are a few Jewish Scholars who may have concerns about the film's Anti-Semetic undertones. (Disclaimer: I haven't seen it, so I don't know if such concerns are justified or not. Haven't seen any Mel Gibson movie, now that I think about it, since the awesome and glorious Galipoli (1981). Go see that, by the way!) But anyone with a real concern is smart enough to know that if they just shut up, this movie will soon enough just go away.

Only Fox and "Friends" see this as a story, and of course even they know better.

It seems to me that they actually think they are really pissing off the "Liberal Left" by making a story out of this molehill, panting about it's big opening numbers, and creating a false idol out of the poor beseiged millionaire, Gibson.

Guess what? We - on the "Liberal Left" - couldn't give a flyin' crap. It's a movie. For Christians. For the love of Christ, can we please get back to nipple stories again? Thank you.

So what's really wrong with America? Take a step into the insular world that is the Conservative Echo Chamber of Talk Radio, Cable News and the Internet and the answer is easy to find?but only if you're actually looking for it.

It is to the shame of America, that most of the millions of folks who listen to Rush and Sean and all the rest of the Talk Radio cabal and who tune in religiously (pun intended) to the FOX News Channel, are NOT looking for what is really wrong with America. They are looking for validation that what they wish to believe is the only right thing for America.

They are looking to affirm their prejudices and cling to their long held intolerance by surrounding themselves in a world of others like them. A world which shuts out all opposing view points, but one which most insidiously of all, creates the fiction that they are actually ?fair and balanced?.

The lengths to which they will go to convince themselves that they have examined all reasonable points of view and have come to the only correct one is astounding. And yet, unless you are actually interested in taking a real look at the many sides of the various issues of societal debate today, you will quickly find the affirmation you are seeking to feel that you are right and everyone else is not only wrong, but ?crazy?, ?whacko? and dead set on the ?destruction of America and all it stands for?.

This is what passes for ?debate? in the Media today.

For example, ?the Left is against keeping our country safe from terrorism? (presumably then, they are actually hoping that Americans will be slaughtered by the thousands), ?they want to destroy the institution of marriage? (presumably then the left is made of entirely Homosexuals who despise Heterosexuality?), and are otherwise ?against the Rule of Law? (presumably then, they want to create an Anarchist state in America.)

For anyone without the desperate need to validate their own hatred and/or shore up their own insupportably weak political positions by finding someone or something to demonize (Saddam, the French, the Gay Community, Trial Lawyers), the statements above are obviously absurd.

But to the desperate Right Wing, clinging to the fading fate of Institutional Bias and Racism, it's not only important to demonize from the get-go, it's important to take the fight to the Left by creating their own set of false assumptions and arguments which are then easily defeated by common sense.

In other words, the argument is framed that ?the Media is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Liberal Left?. This argument immediately discounts the FACT that more folks listen and watch Rush, Sean, Drudge, Fox and the rest of the clan combined each day than the sum total of those who glance at the ?Liberal? media combined in a full week. (An argument that cannot be debated even if you are foolish enough to buy the straw man assumption in the first place that the rest of the media are ?Liberal? and that the Right Wing Media is just fair and balanced ?opposition view?).

But absurd assumptions are beside the point when you're looking for people to agree with you and join your cause.

Absurd assumptions are where the Conservative Echo chamber starts the day, after receiving Marching Orders about what matters on the Drudge Report, and then they play the rest of it out by arguing one side of a debate that doesn't even exist.

This morning Sean Hannity is at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA, on his ?Hannitization of America? tour plugging his latest manifesto ?Deliver Us from Evil : Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism?. He's playing to a pack of live foaming-at-the-mouth Right Wingers who break into a frenzied standing ovation after Sean's every sentence. It doesn't matter what he says, they're in favor it!

?Andy Rooney has employed hate speech because he described Pat Robertson as a ?whacko' after Robertson reported that God spoke to him to inform him that Bush would be re-elected in a ?blowout'?. {STANDING OVATION}.

?The Liberal Left wants to destroy the ?Institution of Marriage' in this country!? {STANDING OVATION}

?Democrats don't believe that Business should be able to profit from their hard work in this country!? {STANDING OVATION}

You know the story. It goes on and on. Take a look at Chaplin's classic The Great Dictator (1940) to see how easy it is to rally a crowd seeking a leader who will tell them what they want to believe. Simply create a false premise, argue the one side of it that represents any form of reason, and then add someone like the hapless Alan Colmes to the mix for a few minutes to give the impression that the issue has been debated fairly. Never mind the fact that the real debate has never been put on the table in the first place.

And if all else fails, despite all attempts to the contrary, should the real debate actually show it's face ? as in the issue of the Constitutionality of Gay Marriage ? we can always try and change said Constitution to reflect what we wish to be true. No matter how much it may violate the heretofore Death Worthy Cause of defending that same Constitution.

That's their game, and ? as far as they know ? they are winning. If the debate can be framed as Good versus Evil, who could possibly defend Evil? Who would want to? So as far as they are concerned, they are winning simply because there is nobody in their room, on their air, or on their bookshelves to tell them otherwise.

So the question remains: Are they winning?

They certainly have a lock on the Free Mass Media, dominating Talk Radio, Cable News and the Internet. They will forgo and/or twist their own values without blinking an eye at a moments notice if it keeps one of their own ?in power? (never mind the stuff they used to care about, like Fiscal Responsibility, States Rights, Right to Privacy and Conservative Interpretations of the Constitution that were once held so dear). They will buy enough books to re-affirm what they already believe in order to get the Super Stars of their Fallacious Strawman Debates (Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, Ingraham etc.) to the top of the Best Seller Lists.

Winning a non-debate is easy. Who is there to defend the other side of the non-issue? They are counting on this. Appearance is everything.

So will they succeed in foisting their insular little world on the rest of the majority of Americans who actually do believe in Peace, Tolerance, Freedom, Property, Liberty and the Love of Constitution?

I don't know. I suppose we'll find out on November 2nd. They pulled it off once briefly (in 2000) and I suppose the question is whether America will fall for the same trick again.

If the Media is the Message, then the Message, no matter how falsely created and debated, wins the day. The Media is everything and the Right Wing owns it. No matter what you may hear when you tune into FOX NEWS or Rush.

If the people are smarter than to fall for that old trick ? and I have no real reason to believe that they are, even though they were smart enough to fend off the absurd attempted coup during the Clinton Era ? perhaps America can get back on course to become Ronald Reagan's ?Shining city on the hill? again. Though that won't happen if Sean Hannity and his insular, rabid, and determined band of Choir Preachers have anything to say about it.

"The fact of the matter is, we live in a free society, and freedom means freedom for everybody...And I think that means that people should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into. It's really no one else's business in terms of trying to regulate or prohibit behavior in that regard...The next step, then...is the question you ask of whether or not there ought to be some kind of official sanction, if you will, of the relationship. That matter is regulated by the states. I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate. I don't think there should necessarily be a federal policy." - Dick Cheney on 'Gay Marriage' during the 2000 Vice-Presidential Debate

Well, you could knock me over with a feather! A Republican as cynical hypocrite?! What were the odds?! Usually such occurences are happily overlooked by the Marching Band of Right Wing Footsoldiers in flyover country. But in this case, it makes the new GOP line against Kerry ("He's on both sides of every issue" - which he is, by the way!) a particularly hard sell. Even the Ditto Heads ought to be able to notice the transparency of that particular game as it relates to Election '04's number one social issue.

That said, by the time November rolls around, I don't believe it'll all make much of a difference either way what anybody has to say about it. The wall seems to be finally coming down, and the GOP and DNC are as powerless to stop it as East German Chancellor Erich Honecker was to stop the Berlin Wall from toppling in '89.

And so it goes. Once again, I'm left without a candidate. As I was when they offed McCain in '00. And Jerry Brown before him in '92.

In all three cases, it was the Media, working at the behest of the two entrenched parties, who were the final undoing for each of them. The Republicrats like to play their own game, and don't much appreciate it when boys with new rules come to town. One way or another, such insurgents crying the King has no Clothes will be removed - thank you - by the Powers That Be. The Media is happy to make the assist. The overnight's call for a good story now. Never mind the better one that is lost over the next four years. That's the arrangement. And that - for now - is how it's going to stay.

No matter that McCain was RIGHT about the corruption of money in politics. No matter that Brown was RIGHT about the dirty dealings which would come back to haunt Clinton. Being RIGHT doesn't much matter in this process. Being a team player counts for everything. The "team" is not the RNC or the DNC. The "team" is the Washington Establishment, which incorporates all of the above, plus their Corporate Benefactors, plus The Media. And so, I suppose we'll just have to wait for next time to take another crack at changing that particular Status Quo.

So what are we now left with? Precious little.

Obviously, Dubya is off the table for anyone with an ounce of either intelligence or self-respect. So it's down to Kerry & Edwards on the Dem side. Both of whom - you'll forgive me - have failed to move me to do much more than change the channel to see if there's a Real World marathon on MTV whenever FOX or CNN forces me to sit through their dubious and predictable dribble.

As far as dribble goes, however, Edwards currently has the edge. He actually seems to have a point of view. About something (though I'm not altogether sure what that something is yet). And Kerry has nothing.

{{link http://www.bradfriedman....og/archives/00000009.htm As I said previously}}, at this point, it won't be won by a Democrat. It'll be lost by George W. Bush. And he's hard at work, getting the job done! We can all still hope for "Mission Accomplished" this November - the day that our Long National Nightmare might finally be over.

+ GENTLEMEN, START YOUR PANDERING!: Bush visits Daytona!
+ CASH & KERRY: The woes of Howard Dean!
+ PUTTING THE GRAVE IN GRAVITAS: The candidacy of John F. Kerry!
+ NICE GUYS FINISH SECOND: The John Edwards story!
+ BUSH'S SEMEN-STAINED DRESS: The story of David Kay!
+ DENIAL ISN'T JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT: This Week with Rush Limbaugh!
+ WHERE HAVE ALL THE CHENEY'S GONE?: The One Term Veep Nominee Says Goodbye!

(With various half-hearted thanks & apologies in part to Fox News, Jaime Robledo, Bill Mahr and my own good conscience.)

Bill O'Reilly's work and reputation well proceed me. So I needn't go into too many details on the Number One Cable News Personality. At least not with the other excellent bloggists, like Maddox hot on the trail in his latest scholarly article entitled: "Bill O'Reilly is a big blubbering vagina".

So just a quick note to mention that on tonight's "Talking Points", O'Reilly continued on his mad crusade as he totters ever closer to his emotional tipping point and the inevitable melt down to follow. He again railed against the "Smear Merchants on both the Right and the Left". He said he was going to call them out, by name, from here on out since these sleazeballs are destroying our American Way of life. Or something to that effect.

Okay.

And then he went on to his first guest of the evening, "Fox News Analyst", Dick Morris.

We report. You decide.

I sent Mr. O'Reilly an Email the other day, but it looks like this one won't be making it onto the air (not "pithy" enough?). So I'll post it here for you:

Mr. O'Reilly - Your tirade against the "Smear Merchants" might have a bit more credibility to it, if you listed ALL of the flame throwers out there, instead of the ones that flamed only at you (Michael Moore and "Stuart Smalley"). When you add the original creators of Smear Merchandising like Rush, Hannity, Coulter, Ingraham, Savage etc., then we'll be able to take your protestations a bit more seriously. Keep not spinning!

Brad Friedman
Los Angeles, CA

Any idea what the coming Fall of O'Reilly will be? Live boy? Dead girl? Married to his own mother? Keep those comments and email's coming...but remember, keep 'em pithy.

They're falling apart over there! Even five minutes listening to Rush lets on that these guys are really worried!

Bout time, boyz!

Now should they be worried? In my opinion, John F. Kerry is none too scary. He's perfectly capable of screwing the entire pooch before this is all said and done with. It's not John F. Kerry the GOP needs to worry about. It's George W. Bush! And they should have been worried about him for the past four years!

Unfortunately, the GOP is soooo tied up with the idea of hanging onto power, instead of simply Governing, that they have blindly followed wherever Bush has blindly led them for the last four years. And yes, I say "four" not "three" since that would include the year that they foolishly destroyed John McCain to allow Bush to become their nominee.

It's their bed. They are now sleeping in it.

Enjoy what's left of Bush's tenure, boyz. Or, hope for Kerry to fumble - which seems to be the only hope you have left at this point. Which means you've still got plenty of hope!

Yeah, the picture's been up all week on Drudge but it seems worth re-posting.

15% of Canadians support George W. Bush.

The hell with making our enemies like us! We can't even get our friends to like us after 3 years of this "bozo" in the Whitehouse.

Of course, I should be fair and draw a distinction; The Canadians (and mostly everyone else in the world) hate George W. Bush and his pathetic administration. They don't hate America. That's a distinction you'd think hardly necessary to make, but when you've got the hopeless Right shouting "America Hater!" to anyone who points out what a tool Dubya really is, I guess one needs to nip that tactic in the bud. A pre-emptive retort, if you will.

Speaking of nips, I wish the media would spend more time on Janet Jackson. They always seem to overlook the important issues of the day by wasting our time with things that don't matter like; Our Complete Loss of Credibility on the World Stage, a Trillion Dollar Deficit by the Biggest Spending President in History, and the Daily Pointless Deaths of our Servicemen in Iraq.

Oh, when will that "Liberal Media" ever get their priorities straight?

It would be nice to get some news about the very important Martha Stewart trial too once in a while. Or Kerry's Botox. Or Scott Peterson. Or Kobe. Or Michael Jackson. Ya know, the pressing issues of the day.

Bill Clinton believed there were WMD's. So did the French and the Germans and the British and the Russians and the UNITED NATIONS for Christ sake!

How many times will we have to sit around listening to Sean Hannity et al repeat that blather before we can find a Media-Approved-Liberal who is smart enough to pipe up and say "RIGHT, THEY DID! BUT THEY DIDN'T SEND OUR BOYS TO WAR FOR IT, YOU JACKOFF!".

You'd think the level of certitude required for a "Pre-emptive Strike" would be a bit higher than "Uh, well, geez, Bill Clinton said they were bad guys too!"

Just about everybody who reads this, and knows who Scott Ritter is, most likely owes him an apology.

Pardon me while I shake out this new Blog software. Among other nifty features, it will allow you - the friendly reader - to leave your comments. Hopefully you'll not take this responsibility lightly!

Trying to move beyond the death of our poor, sweet, Zim, which is not easy since there are reminders of her everywhere in the house. But I suppose that's to be expected for a while. Please forgive my momentary change in mood. I'm sure I'll be my old obnoxious self in no time.

Well, no time like the present.

There's RICIN IN THE SENATE! Duck!

This may seem like no laughing matter to you, but imagine how the Republicans feel! It was one thing when they were sending Anthrax to Tom Daschle and Dan Rather. But this is Bill Frist dammit! And now you'll see 'em get to the bottom of things!

In other news, it's the night of the Semi-Super Tuesday match up. A yawn since they did the job on Howard Dean. "Kerry's the frontrunner" blah, blah, blah. Okay. Let's see if he can be tripped up and we can get some fun into this chase again.

At least Dean has rubbed off on all the contenders, and they seem no longer afraid of being "unpatriotic" by blasting our "President". And so even Kerry seems willing to take the fight to them. That's a good thing. Let's see if he can keep it up and come up with any new ideas while he's at it. I'm not optimistic.

Edwards wins South Carolina! Duh. Tell me sumpin' I didn't know.

Someone better have a "wardrobe malfunction" soon, or we're gonna lose interest in this thing all together until after the convention.